Group targets Focus founder

Television, print ads accuse Dobson of ties to lobbyist Abramoff

8 Mar 2006 // An advocacy group will launch an advertising campaign today that accuses Focus on the Family founder James Dobson of having ties to high-powered lobbyist Jack Abramoff - a charge that Dobson calls a baseless distortion of his anti-gambling message.

The ads, by Campaign to Defend the Constitution, highlight what it calls hypocrisy over gambling by "religious right leaders," including Dobson, who is founder and head of the Colorado Springs-based conservative evangelical organization.

The campaign will begin with a $200,000 ad in The New York Times, claiming that "These Religious Leaders Have a Serious Gambling Problem."

Television ads will run in Colorado Springs, Washington, D.C., and New York.

The ads center on the actions of Abramoff, who represented Indian tribes with gambling interests before he was accused of bilking the tribes out of millions of dollars and improperly influencing public officials.

One of Abramoff's clients, the Louisiana Coushatta tribe, tried to block approval of a competing casino project in Louisiana by the Jena Band of Choctaws.

Abramoff reportedly paid former Christian Coalition leader Ralph Reed to start a campaign blocking the Jena project.

Meanwhile, e-mails released during a subsequent congressional investigation, suggested that Abramoff claimed he got Dobson involved, too.

Tom Minnery, vice president of Focus on the Family, wrote a letter to Interior Secretary Gale Norton opposing the Jena casino. Minnery said last year that there was nothing unusual about that, since Focus on the Family opposes gambling because it hurts families.

Reed, now a candidate for lieutenant governor in Georgia, has acknowledged taking money from Abramoff, but even the group behind the ad campaign concedes it has no evidence that money from Abramoff went to Focus on the Family.

A spokeswoman for the Campaign to Defend the Constitution said that the charges are being revived now because Abramoff is scheduled to be sentenced this month for tax evasion, fraud and conspiracy to bribe public officials.

"With corruption being in the news, we want to educate our members and Americans about the (actions) of religious right leaders," said the group's spokeswoman, Jessica Smith.

She said that the group's project is funded by the Tides Center of San Francisco.

According to GuideStar.org, a database for nonprofits, Tides Center has received grants from the Open Society Institute, which was founded by liberal billionaire activist George Soros.

Dobson isn't being targeted for taking Abramoff's money, Smith conceded.

"It's not so blatant," she said. "His involvement is producing radio spots that were paid for by Abramoff clients."

Untrue, Dobson's spokesman, Gary Schneeberger, said Tuesday.

Dobson limited his anti-gambling message in Louisiana to what Focus calls a "state only" radio spot. Those ads address an issue going on in a particular state and are broadcast only there.

The spots, part of Dobson's regular national radio broadcast, are paid for by Focus, not by outside sources, said Schneeberger, who is Focus' public policy media director.

"Abramoff didn't contact us and we didn't do anything at the behest of Jack Abramoff," he said.

Details of the anti-Dobson campaign will be announced today in a teleconference that will include Kate Michelman, former head of NARAL, an abortion rights group that has long been at odds with Dobson's anti-abortion stance.

Anti-Dobson campaign

• Who's involved: Campaign to Defend theConstitution, which, according to spokeswoman Jessica Smith, is funded by the Tides Center of San Francisco.

• What they are doing: The advocacy groupwill begin a national ad campaign targeting Focus on the Family founder James Dobson, highlighting his alleged ties to political lobbyist Jack Abramoff. Two other religious leaders are being targeted in the ads. They are Ralph Reed, former Christian Coalition leader, and Lou Sheldon, head of the Traditional Values Coalition.